


chasing windmills

by pathygen



Category: Rapunzel's Tangled Adventure (Cartoon), Tangled (2010)
Genre: Drabble, Gen, Islands Apart
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-20
Updated: 2020-01-20
Packaged: 2021-02-27 04:14:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 949
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22330906
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pathygen/pseuds/pathygen
Summary: Maybe none of it had mattered.
Comments: 2
Kudos: 46





	chasing windmills

“Someone else has entered the labyrinth.” The spirit’s voice broke through the established silence, the distant trickle of crumbling rock. She tilted her blue head up towards the overcast sky, like that would make some sort of substantial difference in her uncanny recognition. “Oh.” Her face visibly softened. “Oh.”

“What is it?” Cassandra said. She tossed town another useless waterlogged tome and it landed with a resounding thud, bouncing off the walls. Days and days, turning into weeks of scrounging for another scroll, the hint that would unlock the missing pieces of the moonstone’s mysterious power. Months of bashing her mind up against the stones, nothing like what she had been able to call that first day—

“Your father is here. The princess must have sent him to return you to Corona.” A pause. “Or merely to retrieve the moonstone. A familiar face.”

_ Not here, not all the way out here. _ Her expression betrays her, almost as much as the sympathetic look the young girl turns her way. “He’s alone?” 

“You’re worried.”

“Maybe you haven’t been paying attention.”

“Cassandra.” Small, translucent fingers feather over her hand. Before it had felt like dipping her limb down into a bucket of ice water. Lately, she hardly noticed the cold. “Of course I am. This  _ matters. _ ”

She pulls away and drifts back towards the crumbling shelves, one little hand flicking dismissively over her shoulder. “But we both know what he has kept from you, and kept you from. Don’t let him dissuade you, or catch you off guard, or you will lose more than the opal. Liars are so fond of oaths.”

“It’s mine.  _ No one _ is taking it away from me.” The very thought of that now sparked a smoldering panic that kindled into a torrid kind of anger. It was never important enough before, but maybe now that she had something the kingdom wanted, he would answer her. The thought almost makes her laugh. Maybe..maybe..

(Maybe he would  _ listen.  _ Maybe he would  _ see.) _

Cassandra slipped down off the edge of the wall and landed hard on the other side. The gray limestone cracked beneath her feet. She didn’t feel anything at all. 

_ All the king’s horses, and all the king’s men— _

_ Surrender _

Cassandra knew. She had known it all along. The spirit had been  _ right _ ; of course. There had been an answer for everything else up until this point, a lended ear, a gentle word, and in the great big joke, the downfall of opportunity that was her life up until now, why would her father have been any different? There was nothing to prove; she saw that now; he’d shown himself in every little denial, every pause, every  _ lie.  _

_ Hard work,  _ the man who had taken in her into his arms had said.  _ Discipline and drive; that’s what winners are made of, Cassandra. Losers look at it like a punishment, and that’s what lands them in a cell. _

Nothing had ever been easy, nothing had ever been  _ fair.  _ She prowls through the labyrinth back towards the crater, noise ringing in her head. An icy sound, bright and so familiar now, yet still so out of her reach. Every lost prospect, but she would not let this one go; now when it meant so much. Purpose, her destiny, what she was meant to be.  _ Powerful. _

Free.

He’d lied to her. He’d been lying her whole life and holding her back and she hadn’t seen him for over a year and that hadn’t mattered.  _ Rapunzel  _ mattered. Rapunzel and what she wanted, what everyone else wanted was all that ever did. Be humble Cassandra, learn to  _ sacrifice _ for the greater good Cassandra, earn your keep _ — _

Maybe none of it had mattered. Had it all been fake? A ruse; take in the witches brat and wait and maybe she’ll come back around for her, and lead us back to the lost princess. Maybe she’d been nothing but  _ bait. _ And then later; with the Kingdom’s pride and joy restored, a piece to be kept in check, watched and grateful for what she had been given. Let her dream, let her get close, but not too close, never  _ that _ child.

Cassandra had grown up knowing loss. And that the void, it had a name, it had a  _ start.  _ If she had known, would that have made it easier? Would she have strived so desperately for those stars that were never meant for her? Would she have stayed?

“I left him.” She knelt in the dust of crater the princess had left behind and stared at the weak smattering of black rocks that butted out of the sour ground, her worthless efforts. Buried. He would get out, soon. They would need to leave. To...somewhere. This place was nothing but another dead end. 

The spirit sighed and clasped her hands gently again. She was slowly aware that her cheeks were damp, that the gray specks darkening the dirt are not from rain finally breaking. 

“He left you first. He was never really there for you, was he?” Her voice, soft. Cassandra shook her head. She can’t. There wasn’t any time. But it..mattered.

So she’s grateful, when the spirit speaks up again, and the gentle edge is gone and replaced with something more decisive. “We have wasted enough effort here, I think. It’s obvious there’s nothing left worth searching for. But there is another place where the answers might be.”

“Where?” Cassandra asked. Moving, she needs to move. Nothing else matters, except for this. The here and the now. 

The spirit pats her hand. “A place you are already familiar with, Cassandra.” There’s something in her tone that she can’t quite place. “The Great Tree.”


End file.
